Computation Structures

by Stephen A. Ward

Developed as the text for the basic computer architecture course at MIT, this book integrates a thorough coverage of digital logic design with a comprehensive presentation of computer architecture. It spans the entire range of topics from analog circuit design to operating systems. The authors seek to demystify the construction of computing hardware by illustrating systematically how it is built up from digital circuits through higher-level components to processors and memories, and how its design is affected by its intended uses.

Genres: Computer Science, Technical, Science, Textbooks

700 pages, Paperback

First published December 13, 1989

Reviews

[Nick Black · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another one I picked up in the rush to figure out VLSI before my multicore architecture class has its midterm, this seeming sister volume to the epic classic Introduction to Algorithms by Cormen, Rivest and Leiserson of MIT (they used the same LaTeX templates if nothing else) is thus far one of the best introduction-to-broad-advanced-topics I've seen, and it'll occupy a place of high honor on my shelves. The first five chapters, building up to the basic digital abstraction (that of logic gates) from the basics of circuit physics, were a tour de force providing me an immediate firmament. A longstanding gap in my education (and that, I suspect, of many computer scientists) -- despite a strong amateur study of physics, nonetheless! -- has been filled, and I thank Mssrs. Ward and Halstead for that. The final (21st) chapter is a wonderful coverage of paradigms contrasting the von Neumann model, a list I'd built up mentally only through numerous diverse sources. I'm still skipping around, but highly recommended.

(With apologies to Mike Alberghini, who last night claimed I'm turning GoodReads into my own Nigerian spam channel.)

[DJ]

primer on computer architectures

[Rebecca Ward · Rating 5 out of 5]

Page turner!